In a bid to deepen security ties and reduce the country’s dependence on Russian weapons, the US is preparing a military aid package for India, people familiar with the matter said.
The package under consideration would include foreign military financing of as much as $500 million. If the deal goes through, this would make India one of the largest recipients of such aid behind Israel and Egypt.
It’s however unclear when the deal would be announced, or what weapons would be included.
The effort is part of a much larger initiative by President Joe Biden’s administration to court India as a long-term security partner, despite its reluctance to criticize Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, according to a senior US official who asked not to be named.
India is the world’s largest buyer of Russian weapons, although of late it has scaled back that relationship. Over the past decade, while the country has bought more than $4 billion worth of military equipment from the US, it has purchased more than $25 billion from Russia, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Wanted to be seen as a reliable partner for India across the board, the administration at Washington is working with other nations including France to make sure Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has the equipment it needs. While India is already diversifying its military platforms away from Russia, the US wants to help make that happen faster, the official said, who refused to be named.
India’s dependence on Russia for weapons against neighbors China and Pakistan is a big reason Modi’s government has avoided criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin over the war in Ukraine. As the US, Europe, Australia and Japan piled economic sanctions on Russia, India has held off and instead continued imports of discounted Russian oil.
While the US and its allies were initially frustrated with India, they have sought to woo Modi’s government as a key security partner — including against China in the Indo-Pacific region. Modi is set to join a summit with Biden next week in South Korea, which will include leaders from the Quad, a partnership between the US, India, Japan and Australia that has drawn criticism from China. Modi also received an invitation to join the Group of Seven leaders in Germany next month.
Backing for India is a rare point of bipartisan unity in Washington, and the Biden administration has signaled that it isn’t interested in sanctioning New Delhi over its recent decision to buy the S-400 missile defense system from Russia. Turkey’s purchase of the same system deeply damaged US ties with the NATO ally.
